Feudal Japan: a time when war was a way to wisdom, loyalty was a way of life, and dishonour was punishable by death. It is during this perilous period that the prolific and often controversial director Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) sets his latest project 13 Assassins; an ambitious Samurai film brimming with all the poetic dialogue and unflinching violence of the time. Loosely based on historical events and clearly inspired by the work of Miike’s legendary compatriot Akira Kurosawa, 13 Assassins is an extremely entertaining picture filled with melodramatic weight, occasional humour and sensational sword-swinging action.
After taking great — and exceedingly graphic — pains to establish young Lord Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki) as perhaps the most hedonistic and sadistic man to ever live, the film draws us into the wheelings and dealings of ancient Japanese politics, where Samurais and their masters plot and scheme by flickering candlelight. Naritsugu, the adopted brother of the Shogun, cannot so easily be disposed of. So after much deliberation, Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira), the man in charge of maintaining order in the kingdom, enlists the world-wearing Samurai Shinzaemon (Kôji Yakusho) in an off-the-books mission to assassinate the out-of-control Naritsugu.
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